The rain turned into fire.

Heidi screamed in shock, and this cry that sounded as if it was illogical was the only description she could think of at the moment - she really couldn't understand what she saw, couldn't understand what was happening, she only knew that there was a torrential rain of fire falling from the sky.

It was just a moment.

The rainstorm that enveloped Plande instantly turned into flames pouring down from top to bottom, as if the setting sun was falling and the solar corona was hanging upside down. In less than a second, the entire city-state changed from a city in the rainstorm to a molten city in living fire.

Everything was on fire; trees, houses, towers, bell towers, and even the ground itself was spewing flames. Even the rain flowing on the ground turned into scorching molten lava. The deafening thunder turned into explosions throughout the city-state. It was the sound of all the steam pipes, gas pipes, and pressure vessels exploding one after another in a short period of time. This sound was even more terrifying than the previous thunder... The entire cathedral was shaking!

Heidi stepped back in horror, witnessing a destructive end directly overlaid on the real dimension, and then she heard a bell ringing.

The sound seemed to be separated by a thick barrier and sounded as if it came from a very far away place - it was the steam bell tower behind the cathedral ringing the bell.

The loud and melodious sound of a bell broke the rain of fire, and it was followed by the sound of bells coming from far and near from the depths of the rain of fire.

Hundreds of bells in Pland's church matrix rang out simultaneously, and the reality stability barrier stress was activated. The rain of fire that was pouring down from the sky seemed to be disturbed by an invisible disturbance in the sound of the bells. The flames that fell on the church turned into an ordinary rainstorm, and even the church spire and flag that had been on fire returned to normal in the blink of an eye.

The entire city of Plande was on fire, but all the churches withstood the flames falling from the sky amid the ringing of bells. The strange rainstorm and the even stranger sea of ​​fire were extremely contradictory and mixed together on this burning land. The churches seemed to have become isolated islands in purgatory, supporting continuous anchors amid the great changes in heaven and earth.

It was not until then that Heidi finally heard a steady and old voice coming from behind her. It was Bishop Valentine who broke the silence: "The enemy has attacked... destroy all targets that try to approach the church bell tower!"

Heidi turned her head and was about to ask something when she heard a series of deafening roars suddenly coming from the square outside the church.

She ran to the window and saw that the defenders assembled in the square were opening fire - the steam walkers' miniature machine guns were spraying bullets onto the distant streets, the steam tanks' main guns were firing continuously, and the troops that had been urgently deployed from the city-state guard had also built fortifications on the edge of the storm and began to pour fire on something in the sea of ​​fire.

Heidi finally saw the enemy.

Those were wriggling human-shaped ashes, endless, struggling and wriggling out from the sea of ​​fire, human-shaped ashes that were terrifying to look at.

The ashes seemed to emerge from the flames out of thin air, and the amorphous shapes seemed to roar and scream in pain every minute and every second. They surged in from all directions, like a herd of beasts attracted by inexplicable reasons, rushing towards all the stable reality nodes in the city-state - the church bell towers.

The soldiers pulled the triggers in confusion. Most of them had no idea why this battle started, nor did they know what had happened in their familiar homes. They didn't even dare to think about where those extremely disturbing-looking "enemies" came from. It was just the mission of defending the city-state, the instinct to obey orders, and the will to survive that made them hold their defenses tightly in the face of this horrific purgatory-like scene, and launch the attack according to the muscle memory acquired from thousands of training sessions.

Then, the guards' guns and cannons roared, easily tearing apart the first batch of ashes that swarmed in.

However, the next second, more ashes emerged from behind the scattered ashes, and even more twisted burnt objects rushed towards the church with flames and thick smoke.

Their number seemed to be as large as the population of the entire city-state.

"Hold the bell tower," Valentine's voice suddenly rang out, echoing over the entire church square and even over the entire city-state. "As long as the bells are still ringing, our reality will not be modified or overwritten by them! Believers, the time to bear witness to your faith has come...Hold the bell tower!!"

Heidi watched all this in great chaos, and felt as if her world had fallen apart at this moment. But after a brief adjustment, she had forced herself to calm down. After realizing that this was a disaster at the level of a real invasion, she forced herself not to pay attention to the sea of ​​fire across the square, and not to think about the "fact" that 90% of the entire city-state had been substantially destroyed. Instead, she ran to Valentine as soon as possible and asked, "How can I help?"

“To appease the civilians taking refuge in the church, we need to try our best to prevent the occurrence of mental breakdowns within the church,” Valentine said in a deep voice, “and then wait with them for this storm to end.”

Heidi nodded immediately, and then Valentine suddenly raised his head, his eyes seemed to penetrate the high walls of the hall and look into the distance.

Fire and flashes were reflected in the archbishop's eyes, and a bird's-eye view of the entire city-state appeared in his vision.

He clearly saw the entire Plande burning in the rain of fire. The churches turned into isolated islands in the sea of ​​fire. Every church was invaded by something beyond reality. The fiery evil spirits released from a certain doomsday branch were frantically attacking the bell towers that were still ringing, as if they were desperately trying to make this still existing real world fall into the same tragic end as theirs. Behind the ashes were countless tall and thin black shadows.

Those dark shadows stood silently in the flames, silently pushing the city-state into doomsday.

They are the minions of the descendants of the sun.

The minions of the descendants of the sun?

Valentine's expression suddenly changed slightly. Facing this huge disaster at the level of reality invasion, he suddenly remembered a "little thing" that seemed to have been solved a long time ago and was almost forgotten.

He suddenly turned to a high-ranking deacon beside him and said, "Are those solar heretics still in the underground temple?!"

"Solar Heretics?" The high-ranking deacon was stunned for a moment before he spoke quickly, "Yes, they are still imprisoned in the underground temple. There is a whole team of guards guarding them. They can't escape..."

"They never wanted to escape from the beginning!" Valentine said quickly, "They wanted to be locked up in the church from the beginning!"

"Varied……"

The high-ranking deacon's eyes widened instantly, and before he finished speaking, a dull roar suddenly came from deep under the church.

It was as if some giant beast had awakened in the underground sanctuary.

Some priests in the cathedral who had experienced a solar crisis four years ago thought of another thing when they heard the loud noise.

Four years ago, hundreds of solar heretics gathered in a hideout, and in a frenzied bloody sacrifice, they summoned a brief and terrifying forbidden power. A "fake sun" took shape from underground, almost causing a catastrophe.

But before they could succeed, their plot was discovered by the newly promoted Inquisitor Vanna, who led a team to put it down.

"…It was a test…"

The high-ranking acolyte widened his eyes and muttered to himself.

Heidi felt the sudden rise in heat around her and the vibrations deep underground that became stronger and stronger.

※※※

The sea of ​​fire rose, bells rang, whistles shrieked sharply in the rain of fire, and countless ash monsters emerged from all directions, rampant in the world.

Vanna had experienced many dangerous battles. She had faced cultists, forbidden monsters created by cultists, and even out-of-control dark demons and insane end-of-day preachers, but no battle could compare to this purgatory.

What she was facing was no longer a battlefield, but a sudden doomsday.

In other words, the end of the world has actually come long ago, but it was blocked by the curtain until today. Now the curtain has suddenly been lifted - the living have no time to react, and they are already the ashes of the end of the world.

But she was still alive, fighting her way through the fire and ashes, and struggling to get closer to the towering cathedral in the center of the city-state.

Every breath was accompanied by a burning pain, and the physical fatigue was almost to the point that could overwhelm an ordinary person several times. Vanna's armor was also severely damaged, and her body's recovery gradually could not keep up with the speed of damage, and her injuries were getting worse little by little.

But still the young Inquisitor moved forward.

The bells of the cathedral were still ringing, which meant that Bishop Valentine's defenses had not been breached yet - perhaps the defenders were unaware of this conspiracy to pollute history, but they were always prepared for all conspiracies and battles.

Since the battle in the cathedral is still going on, it is my obligation to return to my battle position.

Vanna was thinking.

She noticed that Bishop Valentine had initiated reality stabilization measures, which meant that he had already realized part of the truth. At least there would be no problem with responding to this part. As long as the bell tower was not lost, the conspiracy of the heretics to cover up the "official history" with "false history" would not be so easy to succeed.

As long as the covering process is eventually interrupted and pollution is removed from history at the source, the city-state can still be saved - the destruction at this moment is not real destruction, but just the horrific "possibility" caused by the superposition of two histories... It's not too late, not too late.

Vanna repeated it in her heart as if to cheer herself up. She tried not to think about the possibility of the churches falling, nor about where the mysterious and terrible Captain Duncan would be waiting for her. She just moved forward mechanically, destroying all obstacles she saw on the road, moving forward step by step on the burning streets, shortening the distance between herself and the cathedral.

But suddenly, she stopped at an intersection not far from the cathedral.

A dark grey car was lying on the side of the road with its four wheels facing up, apparently having rolled over in an accident. Several bodies lay on the side of the road, apparently having been thrown out of the car.

And there was another person in the car - an arm stuck out from the crooked window and stuck on the twisted and deformed door.

Vanna recognized the car and the arm instantly.

It was her uncle, Dante Wayne.